Startup Beddr today launched the "SleepTuner," the first FDA-registered consumer sleep wearable that helps to assess and improve sleep quality. SleepTuner is a small accessory (about the size of a postage stamp) with Bluetooth Low Energy that attaches to your forehead to measure sleep duration, track heart rate, optimize nighttime breathing, and improve oxygenation, all viewable when synced to the compatible iOS app.

Specifically, SleepTuner was built to help accurately measure oxygen and breathing overnight in order to determine if the user suffers from sleep apnea, a disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep. Beddr says that its tracker includes "the essentials of a traditional sleep lab" to measure blood oxygen levels, heart rate, sleep position, and stopped breathing events.

To use, SleepTuner is attached to the forehead by a hypoallergenic disposable adhesive, which the company says avoids the pitfalls of rival options that have numerous wires and other attachments. The device has a 50 mAh battery that provides up to 20 hours of continuous test time, and is rechargeable. SleepTuner has optical sensors and a 3-axis accelerometer to gather sleep data, which is saved in the Beddr Cloud until the user syncs it with the iOS app in the morning.

Once synced, the app gathers data from SleepTuner over the course of its use, providing users with helpful insights like determining their optimal sleeping position, overall sleep quality, pointing out how often they wake up, highlighting night-to-night improvements, and more.

Beddr compares SleepTuner to a few other sleep-tracking capable products on its website, including Apple Watch Series 4 and Beddit:

SleepTuner is available to pre-order on Beddr's website for $149, including the sensor, 12 adhesive strips, a charging cable, and a protective case. The device will begin shipping next month.

Top Rated Comments

It's a cerebral oximeter. Versions are used in hospitals all the time.

Exactly right.

The amount of frankly ignorant and well, stupid posts for this article is off the charts.

Sleep apnea is a major killer. Most are undiagnosed.

This has an SpO2 sensor in it. It can detect pulse rate and most importantly, oxygenation levels. Yes, the forehead is a good site for such a sensor. Otherwise, the good sites are the earlobe and fingers, and there are issues with those sites while sleeping.

Medical tape is used all the time in... guess what - medical situations, and this is one of those.

Hypoallergenic because some people - like me - react to some types of tape adhesives.

But hey, I actually worked on and helped to design SpO2 devices when they first came out, so what do I know? And that work extended into sleep apnea studies... with a 5 pound box of gear and leads and what have you. You know, the stuff that actually impacted sleep patterns.

If this works (and I have a lot more questions on this, I have no connection to the vendor), it's damn near the ideal device for in-home sleep apnea testing.

If Beddr ever invents a device to detect if one is constipated or if one suffers from extreme flatulence or ED so that info can be transferred directly to Apple HQ, I wonder where they'll have you adhere the sensor.

Currently use Pillow with the Apple Watch, would be curious how well the adhesive strips hold up and if I would need to keep on buying them....

From their FAQ, they suggest you wear it nightly for the first couple nights, then make the suggested adjustments and test again. After that, they suggest weekly or monthly re-assesments. So it sounds like they may be single use but 12 would get you through a couple months of use.

It appears they don't intend it to be use every night on an ongoing basis but more for tuning your sleep and then the occasional review.

I wouldn't be surprised if AAPL looked at acquiring these guys. It's complementary to the daytime health-monitoring emphasis of their Watch.

It's possible they were trying to get SpO2 off the wrist, since they already have accelerometers on the watch.

But this approach is better, as you can get head orientation this way (side, laying face up, laying face down).

Plus, can you imagine the howls from the street if Apple were to introduce this? Look at the top of the thread to see what I mean...

I'd hope Apple is funding companies like these, and helping them with development as needed. Create a bigger ecosystem.
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...it's damn near the ideal device for in-home sleep apnea testing.

First of all - please don't clip off important parts when quoting. It's bad form.

And then what? If you are willing to purchase this to confirm your suspicions that you have apnea, why not just go to the doctor? It won't replace the controlled test environment needed for treatment. You still need to schedule a sleep study to get a diagnosis from a pulmonologist and receive an Rx for the CPAP. If you're not willing to do that, why bother to find out?

You're getting diagnosis and treatment mixed up. I believe you might have meant to say you need a controlled test environment to diagnose for treatment to be prescribed. But anyways...

If this works - it potentially could alter that diagnosis part, and put into the home. Lower costs, higher acceptance by patients... This was the holy grail even in the late 80s when I worked on it. It's still the holy grail today.

Early, low-cost, high acceptance diagnostic measure. Perhaps it leads to a sleep study, maybe it leads right to CPAP.

So much road ahead, but I'm cautiously optimistic that this isn't another Theranos.

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